Elder Elf Can't Leave the Country!!

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well, I'm going to start with some bad news. Elder Elf is not allowed to leave the country. (Since Alex was 5 an elf has visited us at Christmas…a new elf found him in the Philippines this past Christmas!) I went to FedEx this week to send off a little package with him and a few other small things. I went to mail him and they told me it was illegal to mail him. It's legal to mail him out of the U.S., but it's illegal to mail him into this country. As you can imagine, I went into Uncle Christopher mode (he is a lawyer) on the woman at the counter. They said if he had a tag it's ok but if a toy doesn't have a tag it's illegal. Can you please check that out? The most frustrating part about the whole thing is of course he doesn't have a tag, he's REAL. He's not a toy, he's a living breathing elf from the North Pole! I was so so so so so so so so close to telling her to pick up the phone and call the California litigation office for FedEx and ask for the head honcho, THE Christopher Yost, . Now of course knowing me, I don't play softball, I picked up the other items and walked out, to the loss of about 2,000 pesos (about $46 US) to them. Do I dare say, even UPS would have been more useful?

It's been a challenging week this week. I've been trying to put myself in Elder M.'s shoes and how I was feeling in his spot. When you've been through an Emergency Transfer in your third week, you kinda think there's nothing you haven't experienced and when you get a new companion you don't feel like the Junior companion. That's been a challenge this week. We're working our tails off, but are still building our relationship and companionship. I think part of it is I can't be myself completely yet when I'm in Tagalog 24/7 as I am still learning the language. Elder M. is still learning to express himself as a missionary.

Mom, you said that Cuenca is big for bakers. I didn't know it was that big, but we are teaching a few people that are bakers so that makes more sense now! We've really focused on less active members this week. We had some awesome lessons with them where the Spirit was so strong and they gave a strong commitment to go to church and then they were no-shows. It can be a little discouraging. But, we are making progress. We're teaching some recent converts that are awesome. Here in the Philippines, houses aren't secure like they are back home. There isn't Brink's or other home security systems, and if someone has a lock for their house they're lucky. This family's concern is whenever they go to church, people in the neighborhood know they are gone and break into their house and steal their food and other things. Even their landlord steals from them! We're really trying to find a solution. They have a rotation where someone stays home from church to watch the House. However, as recent converts they need that strength from taking the Sacrament every week!

Our Branch President is so awesome. He's so humble and has such a strong desire to serve. Dad, you asked about S. . His father was American and was the branch president some time in the past. . He married a Pilipina and lived here in Cuenca. Even though his son has the same name, he's Filipino and speaks Tagalog and a little English like everyone else here. His father died last year I think. He's 24 and in the branch presidency.

Funny story about Brother S. Sometime Saturday night his mother, the Relief Society President, told him something he didn't want to hear, and I kid you not, he pouted and went to his room. He stayed in his room all of Saturday night, and all of Sunday. He missed church (the Church is literally the house next door...literally), and we've been joking that because this is the second week in a row he missed we need to start teaching him as a Less Active, he's also the Branch Mission Leader! We went up to his room to visit him yesterday after church and he looked like a boy in time-out! He refused to go down stairs! We went down and talked to his mom, and she said, "If he wants to stay up there on his little hunger strike, not my problem." Good for her!! His Mom is a great story too. She and her two counselors in the Relief Society literally go and do visiting all the women in their Branch. There are other women that do Visiting Teaching, but they work so hard, visiting as many as they can. What commitment!

By the way, the weather is beautiful. The weather is so so so nice.

We’ve been teaching a family that is so awesome. They've been inactive for a little while, but have been coming to church every week. The brother was in a leadership position in the Branch and then something happened. This Brother is such a sweet man and I want to continue teaching him so bad. I'm no one to judge, but this man is so sincere. It really says something that he's coming to church every week even though it seems as if no one is really thinking about how to help him come back. I have so much respect for this Brother, and I want more than anything else to help him access the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and be given a new start.

It has been a challenging week, as I may have mentioned. It's really forced me to go to my Father in Heaven for help. I can testify that when we get a little too proud, the Lord has a way of bringing us down to Earth. I heard a clip of a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. He was talking about prayer and said “how amazing is it that the creator of the Earth, the Sun, the planets, and everything that exists wants to speak with us. Even as insignificant as we are, he has given us a way to speak directly to him, whenever, wherever.” I know that pray is so incredible important.

One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is teaching people how to prayer. We are literally helping people understand their true relationship to God, and to speak directly to him. I read that great verse in Doctrine and Covenants earlier today. Oliver wanted to help translate the writing on the plates and kept asking Joseph Smith if the Lord would let him translate. Finally the Lord said yes but when Oliver tried to translate he found that he could not. The Lord spoke to Oliver Cowdery and said "Ye gave no thought save to ask." The Lord wanted Oliver to do his part. To think, ponder and pray. Instead Oliver just asked and assumed the Lord would give him the power to translate. The greatest things to ever happen on this Earth have transpired because of pray. The Atonement of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the other countless miracles of the Savior, the Restoration of the Priesthood. How many times in Doctrine and Covenants does it say a revelation was received after they inquired of the Lord. And of course, the simple prayer of a 14 year old boy who wanted to know the truth.

The poverty here is hard for me to see, and it's something that I'll never get used to. These people are so poor. I know that I can’t solve their money problems. However, we have something better than money. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a limitless supply of everything we need. I know this Gospel is true. This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Regardless of who you are or where you live, this Gospel is all you need to attain Eternal Happiness. I've thought many times over the past 5 months about how to respond to all the poverty and hunger here. I found my answer this week in the Acts of the Apostles- Act3:2-6.

2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

Love,
Elder Yost